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“I am truly grateful for the initiative of the Mali report by Watchlist, a highly respected partner in the area of Children and Armed Conflict. We share the goal of improving the lives of children in Mali, not just in words, but more importantly with deeds.”

Ioannis Vrailas, Deputy Head, EU Delegation to the United Nations

The Rise of the Child TerroristFebruary 9, 2015

(Foreign Affairs) – On January 15, a video surfaced on the Internet that depicted a 10-year-old Kazakh boy using a gun to execute two Russian members of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) who had been accused of being spies. ISIS claimed ownership of the video, although it has not yet been authenticated. Only a few days earlier, twin suicide bombings rocked northern Nigeria, involving three girls, who appeared to have been only 10 years old, all wearing explosives that may have been remotely detonated by members of Boko Haram. A year before, a nine-year-old girl named Spozhmai, who is the sibling of an Afghan Taliban commander, was detained at a border checkpoint in Kandahar. Rather than go through with her mission, she confessed to the authorities that she had been forced to wear a suicide belt.

Netherlands: Lottery Grant to Help Halt Military Use of SchoolsFebruary 9, 2015

(HRW) - A generous grant from the Dutch Postcode Lottery will help end the dangerous practice of armed forces using schools for military purposes during wartime, Human Rights Watch said today. The €1,010,500 award is being made to Human Rights Watch, which has done extensive work on the subject.

(NY Times) – Attacks against girls attending school or seeking access to education appear to be increasing around the world despite legal protections of gender equality, the United Nations said in a report issued on Monday. The report, posted on the website of the United Nations Human Rights Council, said attacks on schools have occurred in at least 70 countries from 2009 to 2014, and that many of the attacks were “specifically directed at girls, parents and teachers advocating for gender equality in education.”

(NPR) - A United Nations committee that looks at the human rights of children around the world issued a startling report about how the Sunni extremist group that goes by Islamic State is treating children in Iraq.

(Reuters) – Islamic State militants are selling abducted Iraqi children at markets as sex slaves, and killing other youth, including by crucifixion or burying them alive, a United Nationswatchdog said on Wednesday.

(UN News) - Despite some positive developments across the United Nations system, the task of protecting civilians has become more onerous as conflicts have become increasingly vicious, with the brutalization of women a deplorable persisting trend, a senior UN relief official said today, as she urged the Security Council to press all conflict parties to abide by their international obligations towards civilian protection.

Major Setbacks for the Protection of Children, States First UN Report on Children and Armed Conflict in South SudanDecember 30, 2014

(OSRSG-CAAC) - The conflict that started a year ago in South Sudan has brought about major setbacks for the protection of children, concludes the first report on children and armed conflict in South Sudan published today by the United Nations Secretary-General.

(USA Today) - Caryl M. Stern, the president of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, writes a column recalling statistics that depict 2014 as the most devastating year for children. “With so many different crises putting children at risk around world — many of them internal, and prolonged, and often only rarely grabbing news headlines — sometimes we stop paying attention. The barrage of ghastly statistics can have a numbing effect. But we must pay attention. We all need to stay informed, and stay involved.”